Most of the time – what we want is not what we really need. Our necessity always wins andwhat we want is impractical and unaffordable. Thanks to Kia it found a way. Kia released its new and funky Soul onto an unsuspecting market right at a time when most other car manufacturers are busily pulling bold designs in lieu of more staid volume sellers. From concept to reality the Soul has kept its modern and elegant styling. Expressively though, Kia no longer just builds the variety of cars people need, instead they've attacked straight for the 'desire, luxury and want' factor. Good for us Mr. Marvin Unabia of Kia was with us for the test drive.
The Kia Soul's boxy exterior shape provides styling cues and helps hide the Soul's height not to tall like the Suzuki APV. The Sport's standard 18-inch wheels are a perfect fit for its arched clover look like wheels. Way too cool driving this thing around the city. With its boxy figure, the Soul clearly has the Toyota Scion xB in its sights. However, the Soul has more rounded edges and a more angled greenhouse that features sharp-looking, blacked-out A-pillars. The added benefit of the Soul's decent boxy shape is the spaciousaccommodation, especially given the car's comparatively small track.There's plenty of room both front and rear with space for three passengers across the rear bench. There is also plenty of space for every knee and foot. And as usual Kia still has the "tiger-looks" theme on the Soul.
Inside, an elegant design offered in two-tone hues complements simple controls. The Soul Sport's bright two-tone red-black dashboard should be witnessed firsthand, but it's an effective way to cheer up what would otherwise be an expanse of hard black plastic. Panel gaps on the Soul's dash are impressively tight, and Kia has done a fine job of creating the feeling of more expensive materials. Further back, cargo space is also deceptively spacious. Though the back seats appear to be uncomfortably close to the tail gate, the surprising accessible spaceis useful in accommodating all manner of cargo stuff, with a multi-compartment under-floor storage space tray, a useful inclusion. Equipments and features are made to surprise like the Soul's fairly simple interior; the equipment list is stuffed with innovation. There's still a decent list of comfort and safety items. On the safety front, the Soul comes with six air-bags as well as four-wheel anti-skid disc brakes with brake-force distribution and electronic stability control to keep everything on path.
There are steering wheel audio controls linked to an eight-speaker audio system which includes a centre channel, subwoofer and 315 watt amplifier.For the iPod equipped, linking the Soul via an optional multimedia cable also provides full iPod control through the head-unit and steering wheel with all screen data repeated in the audio system display. As an added amazing factor there are mood-lit speakers in the front doors which can be set to stay on, beat, or harmonize to your tunes. Definitely it entertains passengers and best of all, it can be turned off which is particularly handy at night given the reflections the little suckers throw up.
The base 2010 Kia Soul gets a 1.6-liter four-cylinder good for 122 horsepower and 115 pound-feet of torque. It is available only with a five-speed manual. The upper trim levels get a 2.0-liter inline-4 with 142 hp and 137 lb-ft of torque. The five-speed manual is standard, but a four-speed automatic is optional. In performance testing, a Soul Sport with the manual went from zero to 96.56 kmhin a decent 8.8 seconds. It also produced solid braking numbers, halting from 96.56 kmh in 128 feet.
In town, the Soul Sport's quick reflexes make it a res-ponsive and fun machine to squirt through traffic. At lowspeeds, the Soul's 2.0-liter mill is peppy, with a throttletuned for energetic stoplight leaps, and the gearing ofthe five-speed seems well matched to the engine's power package. On the open road, the Soul has plenty ofurge to runin the fastest freeway lanes, but a driver'scalls for more speed once at this pace are met morewith engine sounds than meaningful acceleration.
Most of the time – what we want is not what we really need. Our necessity always wins and what we want is impractical and unaffordable. Thanks to Kia it found a way. Kia released its new and funky Soul onto an unsuspecting market right at a time when most other car manufacturers are busily pulling bold designs in lieu of more staid volume sellers. From concept to reality the Soul has kept its modern and elegant styling. Expressively though, Kia no longer just builds the variety of cars people need, instead they've attacked straight for the 'desire, luxury and want' factor. Good for us Mr. Marvin Unabia of Kia was with us for the test drive.
